


a million mile fall from grace

by CampionSayn



Series: February Prompts 2020 [8]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Fuck Canon, Gen, Here there be tattoos and piercings and hand holding, Multi, Redemption, Yellow and Green are best lions FIGHT ME, unlearning destructive behaviors
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-10
Updated: 2020-02-10
Packaged: 2021-02-28 04:33:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,113
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22647961
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CampionSayn/pseuds/CampionSayn
Summary: Let us give praise for the most difficult of questions: What If…What if at least one, or even two, of the Paladins had tried to save Lotor and been separated from the others for those three years? What good, or ill, would come from being kind and adaptable?
Relationships: Hunk/Lotor (Voltron), Lotor & Hunk & Pidge, one-sided Lahn/Hunk
Series: February Prompts 2020 [8]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1621750
Comments: 2
Kudos: 27





	a million mile fall from grace

“We can’t just leave him here!”   
  
And this what was snapped Hunk out of the main problem of the lot of them falling through the void.   
  
They could, of course leave Lotor soaking in Quintessence, mad as a hatter and in what seemed to be agonizing pain.    
  
He would deserve it.   
  
He  _ did  _ deserve it.   
  
...Still, Hunk disengaged from the rest of Voltron, Yellow kicking backwards to propel the others toward freedom while they flew forward to grab Lotor’s vessel.   
  
“Keep going, we’ll catch up!”   
  
“Oh, fuck that!”   
  
He would never quite be sure, looking back, whether it was Pidge herself, or her and Green that made that statement before copying his move and flying to assist him while the others screamed.   
  
They disappeared into the void, while Hunk, Pidge, their Lions and Lotor had to find another way out.   
  
Well, no, that was inaccurate. Hunk and Pidge had to figure a way out while their Lions dragged Lotor in his ship towards what they instinctively knew was the best shot their cubs had.   
  
The Castle was still intact and the two of them were unmitigated geniuses. There had to be some trick up their sleeves that might save the day.   
  
Figuratively speaking.   
  
\--   
  
The faith the Lions showed was, thankfully, rewarded.    
  
Hunk and Pidge still had to overload the Teludav, but they didn’t have to destroy the  _ entire  _ Castle along with it. Rather, they used their Lions’ specialized abilities to separate the space the Teludav occupied from the structure, releasing it into the danger zone and closing the corrupted wormholes.   
  
The Castle went through what they thought was the one the others escaped into.   
  
They wouldn’t find out for quite some time just how wrong they were, exiting out into the dark void of space with floating debris marking their previous battle zone.   
  
But they couldn’t think on it at the time.   
  
After all, removed from the Quintessence field, Lotor was their priority.    
  
Especially when he regained consciousness and immediately started convulsing, eyes rolled back into his head, and blood streaked vomit pouring out of him.   
  
\--   
  
It takes literal weeks in the healing pod to purge the corrupting Quintessence from Lotor, Pidge seeming to be teetering constantly between thinking they should just unplug him and let nature take its course and thinking she wasn’t going to let their efforts go to waste.   
  
Hunk had to cut Lotor’s hair to his neckline, so much blood and vomit dried within the locks hindering what they could do for him and putting him at risk for infection. Pidge had to take a pair of scissors to his outfit while Hunk held the former prince like a ragdoll, his frame skeletal and veins bulging dangerously.   
  
The best they could do to give him his dignity was wrap him in a towel the moment he fell out upon being purged, all the suits too big for him and nothing else on hand at the time.   
  
Of course, typical for their luck, he didn’t awaken for another three days, after Pidge had hooked him up to makeshift IV bags and Hunk had started administering a liquid diet through a tube they’d had to descend down his nose and into his gut.   
  
He’d blinked awake, eyes still clouded with exhaustion, but with a faint trickle of fear when he found Hunk setting up another round of nutrition, practically jolting to attention when he found the other conscious.   
  
“...Why did you save me?”   
  
The barely spoken words sounded like he was speaking them around a mouthful of leaves shredded by sandpaper. Hunk couldn’t help but feel ill at how  _ disappointed  _ he sounded beyond that as well.   
  
Disappointed he was saved; disappointed to be alive?   
  
The Yellow Paladin set aside the rather unappetizing meal, trying to look as non-threatening as possible as he took a seat.   
  
“Because leaving you behind would have been wrong. Nobody deserves to die like that and… I want to hear your side of the story.”   
  
\--   
  
The physical recovery and the mental recovery were both slow going, but it seemed that the universe was willing to give them time.    
  
Still no news on the others, but working with the Blade and the allied forces that still spoke with them kept the two reasonably free to take time every day to help Lotor relearn how to walk without collapsing, or eat a meal without it all coming back up to saturate his lap and the table. Help him learn to be around people that weren’t trying to use him or take advantage of his (former) connections to the what could be more useful to them than they were to him.   
  
Still, there were bound to be hiccups here and there that brought out the awkward and angst in all of them.   
  
“How can you forgive me for what I’ve done?”   
  
Well, Pidge was shocked too early on, but Hunk had made a very good point at the end of the day. Repeated infinitely until Lotor believed them.   
  
“We can’t. It’s not our place to forgive you. But it  _ is  _ our place to expect you to spend the rest of your life trying to make up for all of it.”   
  
\--   
  
The others do not return, so Hunk and Pidge have to break the news to the Coalition that they will have to shoulder most of the responsibility of the universe on their own.   
  
This and Lotor being alive after his very public rage and breakdown are a big factor in the changes that come, because there is no love lost for the son of a tyrant being so weak before his former armies, but there is use in a man who knows where the last living remnants of Altea are before Haggar could get to them and trick them into giving themselves over to her.   
  
Hunk being there to help hold him up while he explains himself to the people that worshiped him akin to a god. Pidge there to act as defense when the screaming about betrayal starts in earnest.   
  
The both of them there to release the Alteans acting as battery packs for building ships that Lotor could no longer use even if he still wanted to.   
  
The entire affair was exhausting enough without the news that they had a fight heading their way; some of the Blade and a few Galra soldiers they’d assisted before willing and able to help them.   
  
\--   
  
Lotor never really understood what made the Lions choose their Paladins until that battle was over and the two people that had been there for him returned.   
  
One brought information about a weapon against Quintessence, older than the Lions themselves; something the Paladins would eventually be able to use to the advantage of their Lions as well as the universe in need of their protection. Information, she grinned viciously, “I tricked out of that bitch, Haggar.”   
  
The other brought proof of his devotion to the cause, as well as a reminder that he believed in the Galra people’s ability to change… As well as Lieutenant Lahn and Commander Bogh’s eternal devotion. Covered in burnt flesh and still flowing blood, Hunk carried the two Galra he’d taken off of the battlefield and settled them on the medical beds, a brief smile flashing, “I think we won this time,” before his knees hit the ground and Kolivan had to assist Lotor in getting him in a pod.    
  


* * *

Years passed. Literal years.  


  
Hunk honestly had hoped their reunion after so long apart would have been a happy one, but he truly wasn’t surprised that it wasn’t.   
  
Too much had happened for that to be a real option.   
  
“The hell you think you’re doing, Allura?!”   
  
The Princess of Altea had turned around, expecting to find another Blade member behind her, or perhaps a Balmeran from the shape of the shadow.   
  
Her hand remained wrapped around Lotor’s wrist, the Blade outfit he wore shifting as she turned, enough to bruise, but he remained still and blank faced. Like he was trying not to provoke things getting worse.   
  
He wasn’t.    
  
He’d learned.  _ Re _ learned so much of what he’d thought was the only way until there were people in his life willing to show him how things could be.   
  
Lance and Keith could not believe their eyes, Allura and Coran looked like they’d been sucker-punched, Shiro and Romelle went rigid and still under the shadows that approached.   
  
The Yellow and Green Lions continued to stare down at the party returned to them, unimpressed, unsurprised and disappointed all at once at the lot of them--including the other Lions.   
  
They had gathered a rather sizeable crowd from the upper decks of the Castle, some being Galra, Balmera, Blades, other aliens they’d helped before, but also some other  _ Alteans _ , Garrison Cadets and people that were definitely  _ not  _ just Pidge’s family. Truly familiar faces they could place, but not how and where they’d expected.   
  
All looking to find Hunk and Pidge, completely different from how the rest of the Voltron defenders remembered them.   
  
They were  _ adults _ , and they were perfectly aware they looked pissed at how Allura was grabbing at Lotor.   
  
Because they were pissed.    
  
Hunk took quick steps, barely five, and removed Allura’s offending appendage from Lotor; his much bigger hands without gloves enveloping both of theirs, but the one covered in burns keeping hold of Lotor as Pidge moved the Altean-Galra to stand safely behind the two of them.   
  
Hunk was a full two heads taller than the princess and Pidge with just at the same height as Lance.   
  
“Hunk, Pidge, what are you…”    
  
Pidge cut Allura off, the stance of a general in her bearing, “Back off of him. You’ve been gone for three years. A  _ lot  _ of shit has gone down.”   
  


* * *

_ (But let’s take a small step back) _   


  
“Maybe it was the fruit you ate at that Ceremony of the Sun festival,” Lahn suggested, helping Lotor apply some disgusting concoction Pidge had created in the lab to help out with the growing pains Hunk had been experiencing more recently, going hand in hand with the height and muscle he’d put on as well.   
  
If Lotor were one to bet money on such things, he’d put a fine number down on Hunk being able to match Sendak in everything if they went toe to toe again.   
  
Unlikely to happen any time soon as they had just chased the bastard off Earth less than a month before, but it still would have been worth the money to watch.   
  
Hunk hummed down at both of them, eyes still closed and obviously trying not to flinch when Lahn or Lotor had to press the beige goop into the puffy, raised skin of his burn scars along his left side.    
  
Lotor was always glad to have Lahn help with rubbing down Hunk after situations with the Blades where he’d have to be stripped down to nothing and have something from that ungodly lab that belonged to the Green Paladin applied.   
  
Lahn still stared, of course, but unlike with the Garrison Cadets or the Blade, where they stared at the scars left from Hunk and Pidge’s first run-in with the Dark Matter vs. Quintessence they were using to free the universe, where Hunk had almost lost an arm carrying both an injured Lahn  _ and  _ Bogh across a battlefield with Sendak and Haggar both in attendance; Lahn stared at tattoos Hunk carried from Earth.    
  
As well as his well-defined muscles, of course.   
  
\--   
  
Matt looked about ready to burst a blood vessel.   
  
Which pleased Pidge just fine since it would do him well to believe her when she said she’d be adjusting her appearance to suit her Dark Matter markings rather than just keep walking around, like she’d grown stretch marks in the most unseemly places, forever. Namely her face and arms.   
  
Acxa grinned from her seat on the bench, continuing the additions of deep indigo to the luscious blood red of the tattoos that she was applying to the girl; a reference chart beside her on the table so they would align perfectly where Pidge requested.   
  
The tattoos were, as Pidge said, alchemic variations she’d researched from ancient Earth records that would help her focus the Dark Matter she and the Green Lion shared.   
  
It would help in the fight against Haggar and Sendak and would look totally badass next to the piercings she’d accrued over the last two years. Especially her viper bites.   
  
“Bohemian Rhapsody~” She cooed, teasing her brother with the battle cry/motto she and Hunk had presented as an alternative to Vrepit Sa and Victory or Death mindset that had honestly been fucking over the entirity of the Galra since fuck all knew when.

**Author's Note:**

> The is something I actually hope to come back to eventually to edit and expand because it's been in my head for a year.


End file.
